North American airlines worst hit by global IT outages – Cirium

Airlines in North America were the worst hit by the global IT outages in July according to analysis by aviation analytics company Cirium, which found a 98% increase in cancellations in the region. 

A regular Cirium report into the on-time performance (OTP) of the world’s airlines and airports found the regions of Europe, Asia Pacific and North America suffered the largest number of cancellations in July, with Latin America and the Middle East & Africa only felt a minimal impact. 

According to Cirium, there were 66,430 cancelled flights recorded in July, up from the 53,407 recorded in June, with thousands more severely delayed by the outage, caused by a faulty software update by digital security company CrowdStrike.

North America saw by far the biggest increase in cancelled flights in July with a total of 23,393, up 98% from 11,806 in June, while Europe came in second with a less dramatic increase of 35% to 10,976 cancelled flights in July, from 8,145 in June. 

In line with reports from the company itself, Delta Air Lines was the worst hit in the US with the airline and its affiliates making up two-thirds of all worldwide cancellations during the outage between 19 and 21 July. 

The significant hit taken by the airline and its actions thereafter led to a public legal back and forth between Delta and Crowdstrike, with the software company’s lawyers alleging that the airline refused its help to restore systems multiple times. 

While North American airlines have historically been some of the worst for OTP, July saw the industry record a worse performance than usual as total on-time arrivals in the region sat at just 68.75%, down from the 73.15% recorded in June. 

However, while the region was the worst for OTP, Asia Pacific airlines retained the unwanted top spot yet again for the number of cancellations, with 26,990 recorded in the region for July 2024, though only a minor increase on June, when 26,951 were recorded. 

Cirium said the stable level of cancellations in the region could be attributed to the local industry’s quick shift to alternative operation systems after the Crowdstrike outages meant that additional cancellations were limited. 

Despite the issues seen elsewhere, airlines in Latin America saw a partial improvement in their performance for July with a 24% decrease in flight cancellations and a less than 2% decrease in OTP. 

While airlines in the Middle East & Africa region also saw a decrease in cancellations from June to July, of 8%, they also saw a drop in OTP with 79.98% of flights arriving on time, down from 86.44% in June but still the second-best performance of all regions.

In Cirium’s airport OTP report, Bogota El Dorado Internation in Colombia was found to be the highest performing airport worldwide with 84.45% of its departures leaving on time, while the best OTP in the US came from Salt Lake City International, which sent off 77.24% of departures on time in July.